as with any major religion, there are various branches of Islam. the music is question comes from the Sufi branch of the religion. neither extremist nor conservative nor imperialist, the Sufi's are all about mysticism. "what the listener needs to hear in our music, the listener will."

i discovered this music purely by accident. by looking up one artist on the internet, i found Nusrat. now, close to ten years later, i have been sent [now get this, it gets freaky]: the son of the first artist i was looking up doing a cover of Nusrat. {enter X-File zone: both the father and the son died at the same age, both of drowning in a river!!!!!!!!}

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a tremendously large man, which was his undoing in the end. his family has sung "Qawwali" music for like nine generations. the music originated in the 1300's-1500's as love songs and devotional poems to Allah. those songs and poems were sung the same way, again and again.

<a href='http://nusrat.com/' target='_blank'>Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan</a> this is a page about his work.

if you go to amazon.com and search for him, you can find sound clips.he performed with a troop of perhaps ten to twelve. the instruments included drums, harmoniums, (and VERY RARELY anything else), except lots of rhythmic clapping. it is a 'call and return' vocal style wherein the lead vocalist will sing one line and the remaining troop with sing it back to him. sometimes they do this several times....the intent is to bring the listener past the words and into a deeper meaning. "what the listener needs to hear..."

the lyrics of one song may be only twenty lines long, but the song may be 23 minutes. intermixed among the lyrics are Nusrat doing some extemporaneous "scatt". i'm not sure what other term to use. scatt is the only i know. he makes these punctuated repetitative noises, it's inspiring.

this music has been sung for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years.and i absolutely positively love it. (i'm telling you, and trust your uncle chicken here, when the man sang, he left this earth!)it would go to a desert isle with me.

it's a repeat, but i love this picture:

the samples you find on the internet are muted and muffed. i hate them. the real music is wonderful, truly awesome.

I have heard some songs of his some time ago, I think I liked them. But now I know where from I can take some whole albums by Nusrat, so I'll try them very soon. <!--emo&:D--><!--endemo--> - and then will have a proper opinion.

I think I have heard a few clips, at least, when I was studying world music in college I heard stuff from pretty much everywhere. Will certainly check round Fopp, they usually have stuff for a fiver from pretty much anywhere in the world.

i was trying to find tim buckley when i first found nusrat.hearing jeff, tim's son, try a cover of nusrat is wondrous. it's a live recording and when he starts, you can hear the crowd laugh at it, as if it were a joke. but jeff continues and boy howdy does he work his guitar hard. about a third of the way through the track he really lets loose some vocals and crowd is all hip hip hurrah for the song now. it's quite cool.

<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Trying to get us hooked, mister! <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->i'd be a false qawwali listener if i didn't share my adoration.i mean seriously, for those of you who play an instrument: a 23-minute song? i can't imagine that.

they say people would fall into ecstatic trances during his performances, and i know he performed far more often in europe/asia than america. i've one disc of his performance at royal albert hall (i think that's what it's called)....which is just.....o my goodness.nusratnusratnusratnusrat

Peter Murphy of Bauhaus converted to Islam and his solo work is greatly inspired by Sufism as well...

Did you know though that Muhammed has forbidden music? I am not sure why, but apparently it was considered a dangerous way of spreading 'wrong' messages... In Iran music is still forbidden (some local artists exiled in order to be able to continue making music) and as far as I know Saudi Arabia's music scene is also strictly clandestine...

from my understanding of Islam in general, things that can become subjects of idolatry can be considered 'forbidden'--this would include ART. i think it really depends on how literally one translates ancient texts.

anyway, yes i've renewed my lease on property in this watershed. wikipedia has <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nusrat_fateh_ali_khan" target="_blank">this</a> to say about Nusrat. Jeff Buckley had <a href="http://www.liquidgnome.com/JeffBuckley/nusrat.html" target="_blank">this</a> to say in a somewhat 'official' release. but his best words were <a href="http://www.sonymusic.com/artists/JeffBuckley/JeffBuckley_add.html" target="_blank">these</a>. plus i found him performing in london on youtube (parts are really quite amusing because the audience is shown again and again, and one can easily spot the 'stiff upper lips' conservatives doing everything they can to keep from going zonkers ecstatic).

however, as one could guess, not a lick of this is sung in a language 99.9% on this forum speak--it is sung in Urdu. so if you are a lyrics fan this isn't for you. otherwise, i think jeff buckley's description if most apt.

She is one of my favourite folk performers. She brings a very unique mix of western dance music with mysterious middle-eastern music. Her music is dancable and catchy, but has the mysterious sound that makes you dream away to the small alleys in Teheran or to a mysterious tea house in Anatolia. Natacha Atlas was born in Brussels (Belgium) and is of French-Egyptian decent, in her music she mixes cultural influences from all these countries. The result is very nice, I'd advise to give her music a try. Check http://www.atlasi.co.uk for a few videos. On YouTube I'm sure you can find a few songs as well. Her biggest commercial successes were "Mistaneek (je t'attends)" and "Mon amie la rose", the latter having become a big hit in France and the French-speaking part of Belgium.

i got into sufi music, and Nusrat when i was working in orphanages in India and they used to use sufi music as lullabies to calm the children adn put them to sleep. i love Nusrat now, expecially Yeh Jo Halka Saroor Hae

irishbloodirishheart wrote:i got into sufi music, and Nusrat when i was working in orphanages in India and they used to use sufi music as lullabies to calm the children adn put them to sleep. i love Nusrat now, expecially Yeh Jo Halka Saroor Hae

xxx

omg.i love you. someone who knows nusrat!! close to 1/3 of my music time is spent on nusrat, been really getting into "Kehna Ghalat Ghalat to Chhupana Sahi Sahi" lately.

Last edited by chicken on Tue Oct 24, 2006 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

She is one of my favourite folk performers. She brings a very unique mix of western dance music with mysterious middle-eastern music. Her music is dancable and catchy, but has the mysterious sound that makes you dream away to the small alleys in Teheran or to a mysterious tea house in Anatolia. Natacha Atlas was born in Brussels (Belgium) and is of French-Egyptian decent, in her music she mixes cultural influences from all these countries. The result is very nice, I'd advise to give her music a try. Check http://www.atlasi.co.uk for a few videos. On YouTube I'm sure you can find a few songs as well. Her biggest commercial successes were "Mistaneek (je t'attends)" and "Mon amie la rose", the latter having become a big hit in France and the French-speaking part of Belgium.

I know the thread is about Nusrat who is something very special - but I saw this post and couldn't resist posting - I truly love Natacha Atlas - she's got a very specific voice, the songs are so very interesting & rhythmic ...and I also think she a very sexy lady, though maybe not in the conventional sense - I especially like <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=j-o4Eh236w4" target="_blank">Amulet </a>

chicken wrote:<!--quoteo(post=35406:date=Oct 23 2006, 07:13 PM:name=irishbloodirishheart)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(irishbloodirishheart @ Oct 23 2006, 07:13 PM) [snapback]35406[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->i got into sufi music, and Nusrat when i was working in orphanages in India and they used to use sufi music as lullabies to calm the children adn put them to sleep. i love Nusrat now, expecially Yeh Jo Halka Saroor Hae

xxx

omg.i love you. someone who knows nusrat!! close to 1/3 of my music time is spent on nusrat, been really getting into "Kehna Ghalat Ghalat to Chhupana Sahi Sahi" lately.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

i love you too and i love the way Nusrats songs run into each other, and you feel like you could get lost in it!!

She is one of my favourite folk performers. She brings a very unique mix of western dance music with mysterious middle-eastern music. Her music is dancable and catchy, but has the mysterious sound that makes you dream away to the small alleys in Teheran or to a mysterious tea house in Anatolia. Natacha Atlas was born in Brussels (Belgium) and is of French-Egyptian decent, in her music she mixes cultural influences from all these countries. The result is very nice, I'd advise to give her music a try. Check http://www.atlasi.co.uk for a few videos. On YouTube I'm sure you can find a few songs as well. Her biggest commercial successes were "Mistaneek (je t'attends)" and "Mon amie la rose", the latter having become a big hit in France and the French-speaking part of Belgium.

I know the thread is about Nusrat who is something very special - but I saw this post and couldn't resist posting - I truly love Natacha Atlas - she's got a very specific voice, the songs are so very interesting & rhythmic ...and I also think she a very sexy lady, though maybe not in the conventional sense - I especially like <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=j-o4Eh236w4" target="_blank">Amulet </a>

Yes, she's kinda sexy (in some of the countries she gets influences from, she'd probably not be able to perform even with her usual clothing ) especially in that Yalla Chant video she's very pretty.

But it's about the music eh, and that music is very unique. A very unique multicultural artwork, unlike anything else. I love her song "Bastet" most I think, but also "Mistaneek" (album version without French lyrics) and "Yalla chant" and "Mon amie la rose" and... oh, so many others. She's great.

Cracked Pleasures wrote: I love her song "Bastet" most I think, but also "Mistaneek" (album version without French lyrics) and "Yalla chant" and "Mon amie la rose" and... oh, so many others. She's great.

Oh, I love Mistannek too... and still have lots of songs to discover, she was recommended to me by a friend I actually met online, who then happened to live in the same city & and study at the same uni - psychology